it's one of the many dangers of living on the west coast earthquakes for years there's been predictions of the big one so how would the region respond to a massive earthquake r.t. takes a look into the issue coming up. and forty eight days of a hunger strike at guantanamo bay and counting the detainees are refusing to eat over the conditions at the facility today will ask why the mainstream media is virtually ignoring this hunger strike. and as the u.s. government continues to borrow money to pay its bills the debt has topped sixteen trillion dollars but now an economist says civilization may not survive the death spiral due to our enormous debt is that really the case will question more.

it's monday march twenty fifth four pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you're watching r.t.e. it's what some would call a doomsday scenario the perfect collision of seismic events that kills tens of thousands of people and wipes out entire towns seismic researchers say that fear could become an american reality in the not too distant future and is telling the government to prepare for the worst correspondent rym reports. emergency personnel crushed under their desk as a huge aftershock hit the los angeles area this time it's just a drill the simulated some point magnitude earthquake gives first responders a chance to prepare for the big one and earthquake researchers get to test out an early warning system before the real thing happens after a magnitude seven point eight earthquake we're going to have of course a lot of problems marker vincy manages the office of earthquake programs at the

california institute of technology she explains what the simulated quake would look like in reality we're looking at about three hundred thousand buildings being damaged we're looking at eighteen hundred deaths we're looking at fifty thousand injuries that need hospitalization water and electricity service could be out for weeks a catastrophic earthquake is deemed inevitable in southern california and would be much worse than the six point seven magnitude northridge quake which killed dozens of people new research shows the seven driscoll which runs through california may be at risk for a mega quake which could shake the entire state earthquake. very quick the early warning system being developed will give people a few seconds notice before the shaking reaches them elevator doors can open so people are trapped inside you can shut down caustic material so they don't become a secondary hazard you can turn off if you're cooking at your stove you can turn off the gas here in california emergency personnel have learned many lessons from

the japanese earthquake of twenty eleven you can see there are tsunami caution signs up and down the california coastline but despite all these warnings it seems like many people on the west coast are still unprepared for the next big one. in my legs and i will get out of the building fast and have a big gallon next to my bed and it's gone but i should probably get another one just in case native chris white as another plant i would just. i'll be just pray you know just sit down praying. hopefully my chickens will be with me i will have a girl so we go together at the same time you know los angeles firefighter larry collins responded to the quakes in japan and haiti he's not surprised at the easygoing attitude of people living in an earthquake zone we know that the human condition that a lot of people that i know things could be bad could happen but i'm betting it's not going to happen to me california lawmakers have proposed an early warning system which would cost eighty million dollars that's much cheaper than the three

hundred million dollar warning system in japan but at a time of tight budgets the state acknowledges they don't know where the money would come from all the government totally funded their early morning there they also have magnitude sixes and sevens and it's on a regular basis and so the need for that was that the government then totally funded that that system celtic says they are still a couple of years away from making their quick warning system fully functioning they just hope the next killer quake won't hit before then and. in los angeles remote. for more on the imminent danger is this predicted earthquake could cause arctic correspondent rym angelino joins me now hey there ramona how parrot is california for this type of science nick event. you know when it comes to us california is considered to be the most ready for an earthquake but when you take a closer look and the things that scientists and engineers also are taking a look at california much like the rest of the west coast is woefully unprepared

now here in this day we have some of the top is building restrictions however engineers point out that something like eighty percent of the buildings were built even before these earthquake centers were put into effect so we still have the potential of thousands of buildings just crumbling during an earthquake and the infrastructure underneath the ground is what you're not thinking about pipes that are over one hundred years old likely bursey not just water pipes but also gas pipes as well and ramon you did just say that there are woefully unprepared are there any recent examples that show that infrastructure on the west coast is not ready for an earthquake or a tsunami absolutely when we when we talk about infrastructure into in two thousand and eleven there was a massive blackout which affected four million people here on the west coast and this was this was not even during an earthquake. people were stuck in elevators this was there was one hundred degree heat where people didn't have air

conditioning. were stuck on rides at sea world so and this was not even during an earthquake during an earthquake there would likely be tons of fires but a simple event like this prove that. even without a disaster the infrastructure here in southern california is woefully and. still not up to date and a room and i know that there are several nuclear power plants i'll long the coast of california and other places let's talk about the san onofre nuclear power plant and its readiness to withstand an earthquake is it prepared. well that's right i said over a plant lies have a between los angeles and san diego now that plant was built for more than four decades ago and they can also cater to that six point five earthquake would hit the area so it's designed to withstand a seven point five earthquake now if you take a look at the japanese earthquake which damaged the fukushima plant now there was an eight point nine now scientists here are predicting

a magnitude quake of that size here in california but that hasn't let you know that has really calm the nerves there especially when you look at the fact that there are more discoveries when it comes to faults in earthquakes every single year just two years ago scientists discovered fifty more earthquake faults just here in california and there's new research that shows that a mega quake could stretch all the way from l.a. to san francisco so despite the fact that a tsunami of that size is not prognosticated for the southern california area still a lot of worries whether or not the plant will be able to withstand such a powerful jolt quite a scary notion remonde thank you so much for bringing us that story our to correspondent rym angelino in our l.a. studio. you know when the u.s. was considering interim iraq back in two thousand and three almost every major publication took the bush administration at its word when it claimed that saddam hussein's possession of w m d's was a slam dunk but there were no met weapons of mass destruction and the majority of

the media never really apologized for failing to verify what the bush administration asserted as fact last week on the tenth anniversary of the iraq war the washington post commission author greg mitchell to write an article about the apologies that have come out but wa po might have bitten off more than it could chew in his research mitchell's article focused on the roles numerous media outlets played in the iraq war including an analysis of the part that the washington post itself played in propping it up it said quote unlike the new york times the washington post editors three months later did not produce their own explanation but allowed chief media reporter howard kurtz to write a lengthy critique editors and reporters admitted that they often perform poorly because but it but offered one excuse after another that article was pulled from the publication and that actually earned a lot of criticize the criticism for from the for the paper and speculation as to

some of the more nefarious reasons for nixon the piece but the washington post outlook editor carlos a little dasa claimed that the reason he held the article wasn't actually a result of the criticism his paper suffered in the article in a statement from huffington post he said quote the notion that we were somehow seeking to protect the post or the media at large by not running mr mitchell's piece is misinformed we were well aware of his critical perspectives on the media's role in the iraq war given his book and frequent writings on the subject so if the paper was already aware of mr mitchell's perspective why did commission the op ed in the first place just for some food for thought on this monday afternoon. on to cuba now where the united states southern command is asking the government for forty nine million dollars to construct another prison building in the guantanamo bay detention facility for so-called special detainees that's on top of the money

officials are already asking for for innovations to the facility bringing the overall requested budget to one hundred ninety five point seven million dollars meanwhile the guantanamo bay hunger strike is interim its seventh week with no end in sight reported one hundred thirty one inmates are refusing food until guantanamo officials agree to end the searches and seizures of the take the detainees personal belongings although facility officials claim that the true number of hunger strike participants is closer to twenty six but the inmates cries for better treatment could be falling on deaf ears or to correspondent remain marina porter night shows us how little attention the story is actually gaining. in the world of twenty four hour news no country knows the power of media better than the us hard to believe it's been ten years since the shock and awe campaign that launched the iraq war i believe we could have removed saddam hussein in another way that would not have been so damaging to our cause i mean

a man had to go ten years later the killing continues in iraq without also continuing without end the mass hunger strike at the guantanamo bay detention center but that's how pick remains off the radar of mainstream news and hidden from the american public no i did not notice i had no idea. really according to the center for constitutional rights one hundred thirty guantanamo prisoners began a life threatening hunger strike nearly seven weeks ago to protest treatment and conditions at the island prison a prison america's president promised would be closed at the start of twenty tat do you think that that's a topic that should be reported by u.s. media yeah i think so. because they are being kept in prison by the u.s. so it's only fair that they get their views expressed that's what the whole country's built on the freedom of information to do that i mean i just think it's the right thing to do time square is otherwise known as the mecca of media messages

millions walk through here on a daily basis flooded with information through news tickers plasma screens and advertisements but as we've learned even the most important stories can be ignored that nobody else is talking about this subject if this were happening in russia if people had disappeared into a legal black hole in russia and were facing indefinite incarceration without trial without charge and without access of attorneys would never hear the end of it the western media would be full of it human rights watch on this day international they'd be screaming from the rooftops of westminster behind me. but because this is an american crime because it's an american crime they are allowed to get away with it because the people who control the so-called mainstream media are fully on side with the agenda of the obama administration top u.s.

general is now calling for hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the u.s. detention facility when c.n.n. finally turned its focus to get him out the so-called worldwide leader in news ignored the hunger strike is there anything wrong with trying to improve it fix it spend a few hundred million dollars to get it ready for maybe a new generation of terrorists instead focusing on the money being requested to update the facility where one hundred and sixty six detainees are still languishing you know that more than half of the detainee at guantanamo have been cleared for release are you serious. you know i didn't i had no idea that. i did not. have more than one hundred prisoners reportedly could their hunger strike the u.s. military continues to dispute the figures however when r.t. first broke the story on march twelfth u.s. officials were denying that a strike was even taking place as you recall they started off by saying no one's on

a hunger strike just the five or six people who have been in the hunger strike for many years you know then that figure was revised up to fourteen and now we're seeing the figure sadly increasing but to nowhere near the extent that the prison lawyers are talking about and i think you know hearing about how the law is and not being allowed to visit plus this big gulf between what the law is a saying and what the administration is saying is indicative of the administration still trying to clamp down on that they don't want this still reacts and i think that that means that there is a very big story going on but in the business of broadcast news u.s. networks have to prioritize which big stories deserve the most attention that's right the canadians are using farting to combat smoking nancy grace first of all i want to express my condolences what happened to your necklace the former president bill clinton gets his way actress ashley judd will never be a united states senator very important r.t.

new york a death spiral that could end civilization as we know it those harsh words were used by former world bank a contest returned on ken to describe the path the u.s. economy could take if major changes don't happen and fast here's what he said on sandy say over the weekend. if they don't prevent the credit supply from contracting then we will have a new depression so the policy is to ensure the credit continues to expand and now that's what government debt is doing increasing government is making total debt grow otherwise we would have already collapsed into a deflation death spiral and duncan is not alone in his fears experts including former reagan administration economist laurence kotlikoff and dr kurt moore's agree and yet little is being done to reverse this trend let alone an egge knowledge it here to help me get to the root of the problem and offer a possible solutions peter schiff the c.e.o. of euro pacific capital incorporated hey there peter thanks for joining me now as i

mentioned richard duncan calls this federal debt debt spiral is a factor is an exaggeration well i don't think he's exaggerating you know for years i think i was more bearish dinner richard duncan maybe he's trying to get out bearish me at this point but you know we are definitely headed for a real economic crisis in the united states what happened in two thousand and eight was just the opening activity there main event is still coming in the debt is every you know every much a part of it you know how it's going to be unwound it's going to be a currency crisis for the dollar collapses because we print all this money because we don't want to default and we can't pay or will be some kind of combination of inflation and default but either way the chickens are going to come home the u.s. is going to be held accountable for trillions of dollars that we've borrowed and spent and we are simply unable to pay it back and we've created an economy a phony a con the that is completely dependent on the ability to keep borrowing more money

that we can't pay back now you did say that part of the problem is our debt isn't really the debt or the persistent unemployment that's the root of our economic woes at this point. well one of the reasons that we have so much debt is because we have a lot of unemployed people and of course we have a lot of people who are employed in non productive ways and that's also part of the problem that's why we have such a large trade deficit but a lot of this is the fault of the central government the federal government the federal reserve that are micromanaging our economy from washington and the whole thing is screwed up there are they are focusing our resources where they shouldn't be whether it's housing education healthcare banking retail and those resources are being diverted from where they need to be so we have this phony economy that can create productive jobs that is dependent on the fed printing on borrowing on trade deficits but we can't do this forever and the longer we do it

the bigger disaster when it ends but here a side of the last forty six forty six the last fifty years excuse me on our country has been in this kind of budget deficit and we haven't gotten caught in a death spiral so why now what is really getting at this problem. well not yet but it's the enormity of the problem it starts off as a small problem it's like you know you can you can get cancer but you don't die right away you have to wait until the disease grows to the point that it kills you and you know our debt was a cancer but it's taken a long time for the disease to progress and i guess it's not fatal at this very second but you know we're really close to it if you look at the size of the debt you know the government is forecasting that interest payments on the national debt in two thousand and thirteen are going to be two hundred twenty eight billion the last time we had an interest rate buildout low ronald reagan was the president and the debt the national debt was two trillion something so what's keeping and going

is the fed if we had to pay a real rate of interest on our debt right now there is no way we could afford it i've also heard of the economy being described as a pyramid scheme that could potentially escalate to a point where we can't recover but let's take a look at what's going on in sight for us right now this little island nation's banks were eight kinds the size of the country's entire economy and they imploded the country was forced to turn to the european central bank to beg for money at whatever cost the demanded and that was a ten billion dollars deal that was actually just reached pretty recently and it cost the citizens quite a bit and this tiny nation is making a huge impact on the global economy particularly the u.s. so let me play you a quick clip this is how the media protégé portrayed this event. but i think the story coming out of cyprus to impact you but you want to think you get it how can a small island nation off the coast of greece how can tiny cyprus with just over a million people be rocking the economic world protesters gathered outside the

european union office in cyprus demanding help from its neighbors this is a tiny tiny country a tiny but huge potential the global ramifications of reverberates throughout the economy so it's a massive problem and yet no one even knows where cyprus is in the u.s. take a look at this. do you know where cyprus is you know where now. country. b. to. people with no no doubt whatsoever is by. jerusalem i mean days from now that's a very difficult for somebody who came from europe. i do not. mean. the present so i think it's out america cyprus is a very large minutes or a mediterranean island just off the west coast of turkey. so

a lot of don't know where it is and yet it's having a huge impact and as i mentioned they're saving some thirty percent of the people's assets the bank assets are over one hundred thousand dollars can something like that happen here where the government fees are of savings accounts. well first of all you know it's not fair to ask americans geography questions that mean a lot of americans can't even find the united states final on a map let alone cyprus but you know a lot of americans didn't know where greece was either as you know it sounds a lot like what we've said about the sub prime mortgages you know it's a tiny little problem why should we care you know the problem is huge just because it's happening first you know cyprus is the tip of a very big iceberg when it comes to banks because you know we have the posit insurance in america just like cyprus and one thing we have in common is if our major banks failed if the two largest banks in america were to fail bank of america and citigroup there's over two trillion dollars in deposits there and the federal

debt the i see has about twenty five billion dollars that's it and of course it's all in u.s. treasuries so if large banks were to fail in america you know depositors are going to take losses too and of course what everybody forgets is american depositors are already suffering at the plaza tax is called quantitative easing zero percent interest rates is a way the government confiscates the interest that you would ordinarily earn on your bank account and because quantitative easing means that there's inflation it means prices go up we're paying a very severe depository everywhere in the united states and on the orginally i think it's going to get much larger as the years go on all interesting points peter schiff that's why we turn to you for on alice's c.e.o. as euro pacific capital peter schiff. well as if the banks were hated enough here's a story that will make your stomach turn at an annual wall street award dinner hosted by the trade publication our magazine mega bank j.p.

morgan chase was actually awarded the title of best crisis management for its handling of the london whale crisis that's right the crisis that j.p. morgan chase manufactured is now earning recognition and praise so to refresh your memory the london whale crisis was a series of bad bets on derivatives that were made worse when traders doubled down on their stakes high stakes turn a lot of profit but like the way it wailin moby dick those profits turned out to be garbage gamble the banks hid the fact that these trades were risky to regulators and the result was a six billion dollar loss a drop of the hat for the bank itself but a huge hit to investors as well as shareholders and now the people who created this crisis are actually being awarded for their actions in the aftermath so why are we praising them instead of punishing them comedian dan wilderness here to way isn't their day and so know the one the one whale is crisis is an award winning

crisis for j.p. morgan chase and in addition to being infamous is this how you make lemonade out of lemons dan it is it's exactly how you make lemons into lemonade if the way you made lemonade was to take a bunch of lemons and throw them in a dumpster behind your house and ignore them it also reminds me of what my mother used to say don't cry over spilled milk and if no one gets you in trouble for spilling the milk just keep dumping the milk all over the kitchen and get an award for doing so and have somebody else clean it up later interesting analogy you know when cathy who j.p. morgan's executive director of j.p. morgan's investor relations unit accepted the award she jokes our cast of glee saying crisis what crisis is this most of america asking the same question. yeah i think most of america right now is saying what they say after the oscars you know this was the oscars of the banking world and just like the oscars there were

a lot of people who were overlooked really talented people who got the people who were recognized where they are today like all these bankers in the same room accepting awards and not one of them even mentioned satan and satan to help them get everything that they got so you know satan really is the harvey weinstein of the banking oscars and he deserves more credit i don't see why he didn't even get a shout out now than last year j.p. morgan chase the c.e.o. jamie diamond went in front of the senate and house banking committees to defend wrongdoing during the whole london whale debacle in particular by misleading investors and withholding information from regulators but instead as a censure he found that lawmakers treated him more like a savior some even asked diamond how he did it and what he would do what he would want to be regulated what should we make of of all of this this j.v. dine between like a savior and j.p. morgan chase being awarded for this london whale crisis what we need is just more

transparency you know we need more transparency not just for investors but for the clients themselves that chase bank like how much nicer would it be they're going to do things like this if you deposited some money at an a.t.m. and then instead of a receipt that told you exactly where the money was going like the last time i put some money in the bank a receipt came out and it said hey we just burn that money in a fire so that was a good investment or one time i put some money in and out came a receipt that said we just invested that in a shop in dubai that only sells pogs seems like a risky investments in me and i'd like to know about it while i know that if a job is going toward you for doing something for lee and for doing something well that's certainly a place that most people would want to work at comedian dan wilbur thank you for joining us. but do. authorities are telling nudists at a popular nude beach on the wisconsin river to take a hike at least on the weekdays anyway a nude beach in nasm maine wisconsin attracts people who bathed in the buff from

all over the country but police say that the fun doesn't end with some naked splish flashing arrest records show that the river bed is a hotbed for sexual acts and drugs in a span of nearly five nine days in two thousand and eleven twenty six people were arrested by wardens for sex and sixteen people for drugs it was these kinds of antics that had the wisconsin department of natural resources put the brakes on the beach perhaps the real question should be who travels all the way to wisconsin to get naked on a beach for those of you wondering the beach will remain open on weekends and that's going to do it for now but for more on the stories we cover to go to youtube dot com slash r t america or check out our website artie dot com slash usa don't forget to follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez see you back here at five .

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